Woman Challenges Inmates’ Internet Access

As Janice Keson scanned a World Wide Web page, she was shocked to see the names of her daughter’s killers, seeking pen pals on death row.

Now Keson and her husband, Mark, are campaigning to ban Internet access by inmates and educate the public about the practice.

Keson was looking one day at a Web page for James A. Heard, who lists names and addresses of fellow prison inmates at his site. Gerald Cruz and James Beck, her daughter’s killers, were among them.

Eight years ago, Beck and Cruz stabbed Darlene Paris, 23, and three of her friends to death.

On his Web site, Heard makes a plea for Internet correspondence.

“We want to dispel the myths about incarcerated people and create meaningful, friendly correspondence,” he writes. “We are real people with hopes, fears and feelings. We all are human beings!”

Keson was shocked.

“Yeah, Darlene had a whole lot of feelings until they murdered her,” she replies. “If they’re classified as human beings, then I don’t want to be.”

Victims’ and prisoners’ rights groups, as well as the California Department of Corrections, say it is difficult to track on-line activity by inmates. State prison officials stress that some inmates have access to computers, but cannot go on the Internet or send and receive e-mail. It takes a third party on the outside to establish an Internet link.

Charles Sparks of Cleveland, Ohio, is one of those third-party facilitators. He created “Penn-Pals” in 1996 as a component of the Prison Inmate Services Network.

Inmates can mail photos and information to post on Sparks’ site, then on-line visitors can get a prisoner’s postal address.

Penn-Pals is not a dating service, Sparks stressed, saying he keeps close watch on the system.

But California prison officials still are hesitant about the site.

“We would urge people considering it to be cautious,” Department of Corrections spokeswoman Kati Corsaut said. “Use common sense. These are convicted felons.”